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| An Ordinance that provoked war of words between PDP and NC | | AFSPA | |
Neha
Jammu, Feb 5: The Government of India the other day issued an ordinance on Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2012. It was promulgated to check crimes against women. It was basically based on the recommendations as contained in Justice JS Verma committee, which was set up following gang rape of a young girl in Delhi in a bus on December 16 last year. The Verma panel had also recommended revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), under which the Army and paramilitary forces involved in anti-insurgency operations enjoy legal immunity, but the Government of India -- of which the ruling National Conference (NC) is a constituent -- did not accept the recommendation of the AFSPA saying it "needed more discussion".
The decision of the Union Cabinet not to accept the recommendation on the AFSPA at this point of time was not taken kindly by the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP). It regretted the official response to the recommendation on the AFSPA and on Sunday said, "This is clearly a case of double-standards and reflects poorly on our national resolve to uphold women's dignity and rights without discrimination, which got a resounding expression recently in the wake of Delhi gang-rape". The PDP also took a dig at the NC-led coalition Government for its "failure to fulfill its promise of revoking AFSFA for the last four years" and asserted that it "never compromised its agenda for the sake of the power". In other words, the PDP charged the NC with compromising its stand on the AFSPA for the sake of power. It needs to be underlined that the NC did not respond this or that way to the decision of the Union Government on the AFSPA on Sunday.
It was the attack of the PDP that provoked the NC and the result was the latter's bitter but questionable attack on the former. Significantly, the attack was not launched by the NC working president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had once threatened the Army saying it had to fall in line and the party spokesperson. The attack was launched by the NC provincial president (Kashmir), Nasir Aslam Wani. Launching attack on the PDP, he said that "the party (PDP) was indulging in baseless propaganda on the AFSPA" and that the PDP was an impediment in the revocation of the Act". He said and added that "they (PDP) have the ignominious distinction of slapping PSA on around 1300 young boys in their dark rule". So much so, he dismissed the PDP as a "communal" outfit and accused it of "working overtime to ensure that somehow AFSPA is not revoked". At the same time, he asserted that the NC "is committed to its (AFSPA) revocation".
How could the NC attack the PDP when it is a party to the Ordinance? Is it not a fact that NC president and Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah is a party to the Ordinance the Union Cabinet approved unanimously? It is a hard fact. It is ironical that the party which endorses the Ordinance in New Delhi attacks the PDP in Kashmir on the same issue. That's the reason the critics of the NC always accuses the NC leadership of taking recourse to double-speak and charges it with compromising its ideology on a daily-basis to enjoy loaves and fishes of office. |
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